Keeping Rally up to date

Rally is young and changes often. You never have to go and fetch a new version. Rally does that itself, and all it needs from you is a restart at a moment that suits you.

How Rally updates itself#

Rally checks for a new version when it starts and then about every three hours while it runs. When it finds one, it downloads it quietly in the background, without interrupting anything you are doing. The new version is installed the next time you restart or quit Rally.

You can see each stage in the Rally menu at the top of the screen, where the update item changes as it goes:

(Your numbers will differ. Version 1.2.3 is an example, not a promise.)

When you check by hand and there is nothing new, Rally tells you You are running the latest version. If it cannot reach the update service, it says Couldn't check for updates; try again later.

Restarting to finish an update#

Once an update has downloaded, Rally gives you three ways to finish it:

• A Restart to update button appears among the round buttons at the top of the sidebar. Hover over it to see the version number.
• Restart to Update appears at the top of the account menu, which you open by clicking your name at the bottom of the sidebar.
• Rally → Restart to Update in the menu bar.

Or do nothing, and the update installs the next time you quit Rally anyway.

Rally does not restart behind your back. The one time it speaks up is when the version you are running is more than a week old and a newer one has already downloaded. Then it asks, once per version, with an Update ready message and two buttons, Restart Now and Later. Later means later.

Restarting is quick, and your drafts survive it, so there is rarely a bad time. Have you tried turning it off and on again? For once, that is the official advice.

Stable or Faster#

Settings → Application → Updates has Update channel, which decides how quickly new versions reach this Mac:

If several releases come out in one day, Stable skips the in-between ones and gives you one a day at most. Faster gives you each one.

Which to choose#

Stay on Stable if:

• You use Rally all day and would rather restart less often.
• You give demos or run meetings in Rally and want fewer surprises.

Choose Faster if:

• Support has told you a fix for your problem is on its way and you want it the moment it ships.
• You like seeing new things first and do not mind the occasional extra restart.

You can switch at any time. Moving from Faster back to Stable never takes you back to an older version: you stay where you are until Stable catches up. If you switch while an update is downloading, Rally drops that download and checks again on the new channel.

When updates are not available#

Automatic updates work in the Rally app you downloaded from rallywith.ai and installed in Applications. A few situations are different:

• A build that cannot update. If you somehow run a copy that is not the normal installed app, Check for Updates… answers Updates aren't available in this build, and the Update channel setting does not appear.
• Your company has switched updates off. An IT department can turn off automatic updates on a managed Mac. If that is your situation, they will be the ones to install new versions.
• The download keeps failing. After several failed attempts, Rally shows Couldn't update automatically with two buttons. Download Latest opens the newest installer in your browser; open it and replace the copy of Rally in your Applications folder, as you did when you first installed it. Later leaves things as they are for now.

If none of that helps, contact support and include the version number from Settings → Application → About.